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Antarctica is completely devoid of trees and shrubs, with vegetation mostly consisting of incredibly slow growing mosses and lichens. Among their shoots live hardy insects which have evolved to freeze and thaw in sync with the harsh winters and the short summers. Professor Sharon Robinson has studied this teeming ecosystem for nearly two decades, and says we still have so much to learn from it.

Professor Sharon Robinson is co-director of the Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions at the University of Wollongong. Her research investigates how plants obtain and use energy, and applying this knowledge to specific plant communities, including Antarctic mosses. With a multidisciplinary and multinational team, the impact of this research is far-reaching and has informed and changed the management and conservation of terrestrial plant communities in the Antarctic.

This is a short online lecture-style presentation that gives an overview of this paper.

The presentation will run Fash based in an older browser with the Flash plugin. It is also HTML5 compatible and will run on modern browsers that are suitably compatible. In addition, you can view it on an iPad/Android tablet if you download the "Articulate" app from the respective app store. In this case, enter the URL or follow the HTML5 link below and the presentation will automatically open in the dedicated Articualte app.

Click on one of the two links below to view the presentation, which will open in a new window.

This is an online lecture for first year biology undergraduates at the University of Wollongong. It was originally a Powerpoint Lecture that was converted to the online format using Articulate Presenter which is a plugin for PowerPoint.

This lecture is for demonstration purposes only and is copyright Sharon Robinson and the University of Wollongong. No reproduction or republication in any circumstances is allowed without express and signed permission.

Click the link below to open the online lecture in a new window. On desktops you will require the Adobe Flash plugin to be installed in your browser.

We have been using Articulate presenter to convert PowerPoint lectures to these online flash based courses for students in Biology at the University of Wollongong. They are well received by students for a number of reasons.

Ability to view them online at any time.

Easy to access as a revision tool before exams.

Slides can easily be paused and repeated to enable students to learn at the pace that suits them best.

Creates a more personal interaction between teacher and student than slide handouts alone.

We are also uing Articulate Storyline to convert PowerPoint presentations although Presenter is generally fine for simple conversions to a web based format. Storyline is a more fully featured program and is better for creating multimedia presentations form scratch with various forms of branching and interactivity. It also includes robust tools for creating various types of interactive quiz and question pages that can be scored on the fly and also transferred to SCORM compliant database systems such as Moodle.

This page is an overview of the sceince projects that I was involved with on our January 2015 trip to King George Island with INACH, the Chilean Antarctic Program. I was working with two Chilean scientists on this trip -

In January of 2015 I went down to Chile's Escudero Base on King George Island with the Chilean Antarctic Program - INASCH. I was working with Angélica Casanova Katny of the Universidad de Concepción and Professor Gustavo Zuniger from Santiago University. My partner Andrew Netherwood accompanied us as the expedition photographer on this trip and most of the photos you see on this page are taken by him.

This page is mostly about King George Island and Escudero Base where we stayed. For the science projects that we were attempting to accomplish see this page.

We had travelled to Chile at the end of 2014 and had a brief holiday on Easter Island before returning to Santiago and then flying down to Punta Arenas where INACH (Instituto Antártico Chileno) is headquartered. As usual with trips down to Antarctica, after being kitted out, there was a period of waiting as the flight schedules were juggled before we were told that we had a definite flight down on a Chilean Air Force Hercules.

This proved to a lot quicker than going by ship which I had done on my previous visit to King George Island, and we arrived at the "Teniente Rodolfo Marsh" airforce base in under 4 hours after having left Punta Arenas. This aerodrome on the Fildes penninsula of King George Island looks down over an area of settlement that includes the Chilean "Eduardo Frei" navy and airforce base, the Chilean Escudero science base (where we stayed) and also the Russian Belingshausen Base. (see the maps)

Escudero Base is nestled in a sheltered area on Maxwell Bay below the aerodrome. It shares this space with the Eduardo Frei Chilean Navy Base and the Russian Belingshausen Antarctic Base so it is quite the small village. We were there for 10 days with the aim of doing as much science as we could in collaboration with Angelica Casanova-Katney and Gustavo Zuniger and their students. The first couple of days were quite cloudy but we were able to travel in the IRBs to the Collind Glacier field site which was about 20 minutes away. After this we had a mix of weather including some glorious sunny days when photography and science were at a premium and other days when the lack of visibility and high winds made it too dangerous to be outsid and we were confined to the base.

The gallery below shows some of the landscape around Maxwell Bay.

Various science projects were being done, mine were related to moss growth, distribution and physiology. Andrew was also seconded to Lichen photography with German lichenologist Dr Andreas Beck who was part of the "Angelica science team".

The gallery below shows some of the flora to be found in the Fildes peninsula region of King George Island. For more picures of our experimental organisms and the science ivolved see the King George Island Science page.

This gallery shows some of the fauna encountered on our time on King George Island.

Antarctic Plants and Global Change

An Overview of my Antarctic Research Projects

Since plant growth in Antarctica is very slow, we use a range of molecular and physiological techniques to predict how terrestrial biodiversity in Antarctica will change as a result of climate change.

Our work is providing important insights into the biology of these plants that survive and grow in conditions equivalent to a freezer. Our research provides evidence that the Antarctic endemic moss Grimmia antarctici is likely to be more susceptible to climate change than two co-occurring cosmopolitan species Ceratodon purpureus and Bryum pseudotriquetrum (Robinson et al 2005 PDF 681k, Wasley et al 2006a, b).

My Group is Investigating:

The impact of the ozone hole and the resultant increase in UV-B radiation on these communities (sunscreen pigments, DNA damage and potential for genetic mutation in Antarctic plants). (Turnbull et al. 2009, Turnbull and Robinson 2009; Lovelock, C.E. and Robinson, S.A. (2002); Robinson et al. 2005). We are also looking at the ways in which the ozone hole has changed the climate of East Antarctica, making it windier and therefore drier (Clarke et al 2012).

The bioactive compounds responsible for the high UV, desiccation and cold tolerance of Antarctic mosses (Robinson & Waterman 2014).

We are using remote sensing to map Antarctic Ecosystems

Our research in Antarctica also involves collaboration with the Terraluma group at the University of Tasmania to assess the practicality of using near remote sensing from UAVs to map and monitor vegetation change in these sensitive communities. (Turner et al., 2014; Lucieer et al 2014) Lovelock, C.E. and Robinson, S.A. 2002)

L.I.F.T Laser Induced Fluorescence transients

Plant Stress Ecophysiology

Using chlorophyll fluorescence to investigate plant stress

Physiological techniques can help to answer many questions in ecology, conservation biology and agriculture. These research areas involve collaboration with colleagues at Wollongong (weed ecophysiology - Kris French, Mangroves and salt marshes - Todd Minchinton) and around Australia (Phylloxera DPI Victoria and CSIRO Land and Water).

Plants and extreme events

Brief History

I was born in London but did most of my growing up on the North Coast of Cornwall. I moved back to London to study Genetics & Botany at University College London and graduated with a First Class Honours Degree. I then worked for two years in student poltics, first at UCL as a Sabbatical Officer and President of UCL Student's Union concerned with student welfare, and then as an Executive Officer of the UK National Union of Students. In 1986 I completed a Graduate Certificate in in Science Education at Kings College London and then returned to UCL in 1987 to start a PhD with George Stewart on "Nitrogen metabolism in carrot cell cultures" which I completed in 1990.

Professional Experience

2010 - present

Professor, Biological Sciences, The University of Wollongong

2009-

Deputy Director, Institute for Conservation Biology and Environmental Management, The University of Wollongong

2007

Visiting Professor, University of Vienna

2005 - 2008

Director, Institute for Conservation Biology and Law, The University of Wollongong

2004- 2010

Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, The University of Wollongong

2000 - 2005

Head of Postgraduate Studies, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Wollongong